Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-02-15
"A vfndication of President CIeye-
land.

inst, arc marshalled half dozen of the
principal objections of tbs GAZETTE to Presi'
dent Cleveland with such distinctness as TO
be readily reviewed. With your permits
sion, / venture to examine some oil them.
Much stress is laid upon the revocation, o
year or more ago, of the appointment TO
some office of Mr.. Black burn, OF Kentucky,
because, as it i5 alleged, he was In 1861,
when a mere bow, the writer OF an extrsva
CANT letter denouncing Yankees, proposing
10 swim in their blood, etc. 1t is not denied
he wrote the letter, but, whether he DID or
not, such authorship was certainly no just
reason for DENYING him place now under
government. De minimiS non curat Tea. Ii,
| however, as have heard there were other
and Weighty reasons for such action on the
part of the executive, it alters the case ma.
terially. And perhaps, after all. if he had
not been the near kinsman OF U. S. Sena-
tor so insignificant circumstance would
have been long since forgotten.
Az to attributing the Presidents failure TO
take his wife to Richmond last fall to fear of
her meeting the daughter of ex-President
Davis, can only express surprise that so
small a matter should, after the lapse OF
more than three months, be again brought
up. 1t was abundantly demonstrated at the
time by myself and others in the columns of
the GAZETTE, that the charge could not be
substantiated.
In regard to Mr.. ClevclaDd's approval OF
two of the rules of the civil service commits
sion to which you take special exception,
fuller answer is necessary. The rules in
question are that which limits the eligibles
to the four vino pass highest in any OF the
examinations for the classified service, and
that which excludes all men over forty
(other than those honorably discharged
| from the military or naval service'') from
being candidates in these examinations.
The civil service law expressly requires
"competitire examinations for testing the ti.-
ness of applicants" and that appointments
shall be made according TO grade from
among those graded highest as to the results
of such competitive examinations" To
prescribe a rule for Sending up all the
names that had passed successful examna
tons" as eligible for the the purpose Of
allowing democratic appointing officers to
appoint democrats, az the GAZETTE thinks
the President ought to do, ard declares that
he knows it is wrong moi to do, would be
for him impudenty to violate law he has
sworn to execute.
The rule of the civil service commission
which excludes altogether from exam!na.
ton for appointment N,en over nfty-tive,
though under cur present circumstances
Objectionable is perfectly right in principle.
Under due reform of the civil service per-
sons are supposed to enter it for life, lust as
they do army and navy, and work up, CIV
ing this career their most vigorous years,
and at fifty five mems best years are usually
behind them. The Offices are filed with
principal reference 10 the public interest
and not to individual aggrandisamcnt, and
that interest emphatica!y demands young
men to begin with Yet the rule should be
revoked for one reason The civil service
act expressly leaves in full operation the
statute which gives preference in ali federal
appointments, other things belnS equal, TO
old soldiers and sailors of the o. S. army,
irrespective of age. and thus Discriminate
doubly and most unjastly against all others,
including -confederates. AT the same
time, no proof has even beer offered of the
oft repeated allegation that the obnoxious
rule was adopted Cor the purpose of keeping
out "ex rebels
Another of the GAzETTE's objections to
the President Is that he allows nearly all
the subordinate and many of the prominent
offices of the government to be filled by re-
pubicans," or, as stated in another place,
This retention of nine tenths Of the republi
cans he found in Office" The simplest an
4
hesitate to make, is positive denial OF the
fact. At best, it is rot true, nor anything
like tue, that NEARLY all the subordinate
Offices" or that "nue tenth5" of them ere
now held by republicans, What the pro-
portion is exactly am not able just now to
say, though incline to believe the state
ment of a recent careful writer in tho New
York EUening Post, who puts it at 40 per
cent. IT this is so l. for one, hope it may
continue st about that point. The repub!i.
cans are about half the people OF the coun-
try. pay about half the taxes, and OF the
subordinate Offices certainly, which reflect
no policy are justly entitled to moiety.
One item more of your criticisms on the
President will be considered. You say
''He knows it is wrong to approve all the |
general pension bills that give pensions to
thousands OF people who have no just claim
to them, but be fears his veto would make
him unpopular with the soldier element"
1t is allowed by most candid men, even
in the North, irrespective OF party, that fif
teen years ago at least due provision OF pen,
sions had been made for eli who deserved |
them, and it is notorious that all |
legislation in that behalf since has been the !
work of demogogues and has wrought a
shameful misrepresentation Of public money.
On this question the GAZETTE is perfectly /
right. But as q matter Of fact-tosa moth
ing of the many private bills he has vetoed
have not the general ones President
| Cleveland has approved been of such mod
est proportions and so comparatively harm
less a character otherwise as to make it
natural an honest Northern man should not
strongly object to them? More than all
this, if such were not the case, has not the
support ofsome. if not all, such acts in Con-
gress by certain representative Southern
men, however fagitious in them, been well
calculated to prevent him from surprising
he "was wrong" in signing them. But l
need gay no more On this point, for it is toll.
eraby certain that the objection just re-
viewed would not have been mentioned BY
you at all had the veto of the dependent
pension bill, by which on Friday last the